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| Africa North |
| Morocco, Polisario still apart on W.Sahara: UN |
| 2010-02-13 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement failed to narrow their differences Friday after two days of informal talks on the disputed Western Sahara in suburban New York, a U.N. statement said. Christopher Ross, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's personal envoy for the Western Sahara, said in a statement at the end of the talks that "neither party had accepted the proposal of the other as the sole basis of future negotiations." He said the two sides however reiterated their commitment "to continue their negotiations as soon as possible" and added that, to that end, he planned to travel to the region for further consultations with the parties and other stakeholders. Ross said the discussions "took place in an atmosphere of serious engagement, frankness and mutual respect." The closed-door meeting at the IBM Learning Center in the hamlet of Armonk was modeled on a similar informal session held in Austria last August. It aimed to clear the way for a fifth round of formal talks between the parties. Four previous rounds held in the New York suburb of Manhasset since June 2007 have failed to resolve the dispute over the phosphate-rich territory annexed by Morocco in 1975 after colonial power Spain withdrew. Morocco's annexation of the territory sparked a war between its forces and Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 but the U.N.-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have since made no headway. Rabat has pledged to grant Western Sahara widespread autonomy but rules out independence. The Polisario Front, with the support of Algiers, wants a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options. Mohammed Khadad, a senior Polisario official who attended the Armonk meeting, said the parties on Wednesday focused on human rights and confidence-building measures. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 I lived in Morocco fopr about six months in 1975 and was told that Morocco didn't annex half of the Spanish Sahara, they got a part of Morocco back. Morocco had several Spanish enclaves: Tangiers and Sidi Ifni are now Moroccan, while Melilla and Cetua remain Spanish. So another point of view is that the Moroccans only want a part of their pre-colonial country back. Algerian support was viewed as more anti-Moroccan than pro-Polisario. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2010-02-13 13:07 |